CTV News anchor Tamara Taggart is the captivating cover girl for a BC magazine which made its debut this month.

She’d prefer there was never a reason she’d even been considered.

But as a cancer survivor who’s just passed the two year mark since her close brush with death, she couldn’t say no when the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) asked her to grace the cover of its new publication called Forward.

It targets 200,000 people in BC who’ve had a previous diagnosis of cancer. Sharing stories about cancer experiences can be therapeutic, Taggart says:

“It takes the weight of the world off your shoulders when you share common experiences, including those about cancer.”

The new magazine published by the BC Cancer Foundation explores mind, body and spirit issues that individuals living with, and beyond, cancer will face. Angela Wilson, communications manager for the BCCA, said survivors will be featured on every cover. But they won’t always be famous like Taggart.

The television newscaster told me in an interview that she was uncertain when first approached about sharing her story:

I can definitely say its not the magazine cover I dreamed I’d be on. I hesitated, initially, because just even saying the word ‘cancer’ is still hard for me. Not many people know I’ve even gone through this experience.”

Taggart had a rare cancer called Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour (GIST) and since it was removed, the 45-year old has been taking a drug that has revolutionized the care of such patients. She was, in fact, told by her doctor that if she’d been diagnosed more than a decade ago, before the advent of drugs known as targeted biologic therapies, she’d be dead.

For several months in 2011 before she was diagnosed, Taggart was anaemic but doctors never discovered the source of the problem until the fist-sized tumour adhering to her small intestines ruptured.

The day it burst, in January, 2012, she was suffering the worst headache of her life. She vomited and passed out in the bathroom at work, on a day she was meant to be celebrating the first anniversary of her start as Mike Killeen’s co-anchor on the 6 p.m. CTV news.

Unbeknownst to doctors, the tumour had been growing inside Taggart for about two years. It was missed by a radiologist reading a CT scan that was done when she was suffering through a bout with kidney stones, not long after she delivered her third child in 2010.

Taggart says despite the delay in a diagnosis, and even a missed diagnosis by the radiologist (who later apologized), she’s not bitter.

A GIST tumour.

I was upset for 24 hours when I learned the tumour was visible on a scan I had in 2010. When I met the radiologist again, I told him ‘I need you to know that I hated you for 24 hours.’ But he was looking at my kidneys for kidney stones. Only when he was asked to go back and look at the scan again did he see a tumour in my small intestines.

I wished he would have seen it initially but I also wished none of this had ever happened. But it did, and now I want other patients to be aware that when something doesn’t feel right in their bodies, we have to be our own best advocates.”

Fortuitously, one of the world’s leading experts on GIST, Dr. Charles Blanke, was still at the BC Cancer Agency when Taggart was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital by ambulance, bleeding to death, internally.

Dr. Charles Blanke

He has since moved to Portland, Orgeon where he leads a major research program and sees GIST patients from around the world. But Taggart still emails Blanke with any questions and she’s confident in her new gastrointenstinal oncologist.

Blanke pioneered the research and use of a life-saving drug called Gleevec for GIST patients. Taggart is now on the generic version of it, but at the time she was first prescribed the daily medication, it was $6,000 a month, a cost covered by the BCCA budget. Taggart is grateful to all the health professionals who helped save her life and to the health system at large:

Tamara Taggart. Photo: Kyrani Kanavaros

“People like to complain about the health care system, and it’s not perfect, but boy, when you need it for something so urgent, it’s there. And the medical and nursing care is unbelievable.”

Studies have shown that patients with large tumours like hers may have a recurrence rate of 50 per cent if they don’t take the drug after their surgery. However, taking the drug cuts the tumour recurrence to 25 per cent. Taggart says she expects to be on it for three years and, depending on still-to-be published research, perhaps as long as five years.

Follow up care involves blood work every three months and a CT scan every six months. Like most cancer survivors, she has bleak days, especially when she worries about her three young children, aged three, five and six. Her oldest child has Down syndrome.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumours are masses of abnormal connective tissue in the gastrointestinal tract.

Tumours can grow anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract, from the esophagus to the anus. Most happen in the stomach; a few (including Tamara Taggart’s) arise in the small intestine or other sites in the tract. They have the potential to spread to other body parts and organs like the liver.

GIST is rare, believed to affect only 15 out every one million people. Improved diagnostics mean more are being detected, and advances in treatment in the past 15 years means GIST is less lethal.

Diagnosis

There is no screening test for these tumours. Many are found as a byproduct of imaging tests or surgeries done for other problems.

Some are diagnosed based on symptoms, mainly anemia from internal bleeding caused by the tumour. Nausea, vomiting and weight loss are other common symptoms.

Treatment

Surgery to remove the tumour is commonly done. Then patients at higher risk of relapse go on drug therapy.

GIST does not respond to conventional chemotherapy or radiation. But a drug called imatinib (better known by the trade name Gleevec) has revolutionized treatment and has been used for the past decade to prevent tumours from coming back. The drug, most commonly used to treat leukemia, targets the genetic mutations underlying GIST. It helps prevent tumour growth by inhibiting the proteins that drive its cells to multiply.

Up to 20 per cent of patients do not respond to the drug, how­ever, and nearly half may develop resistance to it. The good news is that other life-saving or life-prolonging drugs are now available if that happens and doctors are optimistic that many patients will have normal life expectancies.

The future

One of the world’s leading authorities on these tumours is oncologist Charles Blanke, a former BC Cancer Agency executive. He is now practising in Portland, Oregon, where he focuses solely on gastrointestinal stromal tumours. He does U.S.-government-funded research and treats patients from around the world.

Although the five-year survival rate from these tumours ranges from 28 to 60 per cent, Blanke said existing and emerging therapies offer the prospect of making such tumours a controllable, chronic condition, much like high blood pressure.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.